He Who Dares
by connor1701
Summary: A small salvage crew stumble onto something significant. How original? An idea I've had for a few years now. Rated T for later chapters. Might change to M. We'll see.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: CCP owns EVE Online, I own my Original Characters. **

Waking up after a hefty blow to the head was never an enviable experience Daltfur Reglaasan mused, through the pain and blurriness, as he lay on the metal grating that passed for the deck aboard this vessel. He was flat on his back in a maintenance walkway of a privately held Thrasher class destroyer. A pretty face appeared above him, concerned and serious.

"Rayna?" He mumbled, his forehead throbbing excruciatingly. He would recognise the face of his mentor and fellow engineer even after waking from a 20 year coma. She smiled and laid a cooling hand on his head. Daltfur could hear and feel footsteps, falling in sync with the throbbing in his head, and sure enough the fuzzy white head of the Caldari doctor appeared next to Rayna's.

"Hmm... Looks like someone might have a bit of a concussion." The doctor said to Rayna.  
Her soft Kahnid features made her look almost angelic to Daltfur in the dim yellow light of the passageway. The doctor helped Daltfur to his feet and held him steady as he staggered to a hover-stretcher. The medic started walking toward the infirmary and the stretcher followed him. Rayna clapped him on the shoulder as he walked past.

"Cheers Jerr." She said quietly before disappearing toward main engineering.

A short gurney ride later Daltfur was having molecular sutures to close the wound on his head. His pronounced, angular Civire features splotched with blood.

"Seriously Jerr, I was just making my usual run from the cargo hold to engineering," Daltfur said, looking up at the doctor. A bright surgical lamp was shining into his face, partially blinding him with its white light.

"I tripped over my own feet I think." He continued as the tiny medical assistance drone finished with the molecular stitches.  
"A stupid lapse of concentration. Then I must have hit my head on a bulkhead support before Rayna found me." He sat up and felt the wound, or would have if there was a wound left to feel.

"Well apart from slight dizziness, which will pass, your're fine Mr Reglaasan." Jerr said, filling in a form on his console.  
Daltfur looked at the timepiece on the wall; he had two and a half hours of his shift yet. He turned to leave.

"Thanks Doc." He said as the door whooshed shut behind him.

On the bridge of the ship, the captain was staring intently at a holographic projection of the system they were currently in. The XO was stood slightly behind him. Probe spheres were rotating as they scanned the system.

"GXG-5Y: what a shithole." The captain sighed. This was the fifth system he had entered today and there was still no luck with salvage, bounties or contraband smuggling.

"Sir!" a sensor operator piped up. "I'm picking up a stationary vessel from probe 3."  
Captain Tserrahan Berhuvian, a rare individual in the fact that he is only 5 feet and 5 inches tall, weighs 43 Kilos and a Brutor Tribesman, became captain of the Little Fish nearly seven years ago, buying it from the dead previous owner's brother after being cast out of his family by his drunkard father who was ashamed that Tserrahan was _his _son.

"Verify that, we know what stationary ships can do." The XO chipped in. Marrke Esra was the ships second-in-command, a Gallentean dissenter and friend of Tserrahan.

"The probe checks out and the reading is still there." The young man at Sensor Ops stated.

"Captain, we can warp to a safe spot to get a closer look?" The helmsman offered.

Tserrahan nodded.  
"Do it, Konrad."

The panoramic windows of the bridge showed the perspective change as the ship banked to align with the warp tunnel forming ahead of it. Tserrahan liked the bridge being placed in an under-slung cupola as it gave an unobstructed view of the space around the ship. There was also an observation deck built into the cupola, behind the bridge, for this very reason however crew members that suffered from vertigo were usually absent from these areas. The Little Fish was pulled into the warp tunnel, distorting the panorama of space outside the windows. The inertial dampers kicked in with a thrum. Almost instantly the light-distorting properties of the warp tunnel dissipated and they were dropped from warp in the extreme upper atmosphere of a gas giant. A few gasps could be heard from a number of the bridge crew.

"We have arrived." The helmsman announced.

"Jerhan; status on the UFO." Marrke ordered sharply.

"Receiving telemetry from the probe, standby."

A few tense seconds passed before he spoke again.

"The vessel is adrift, looks like it has been disabled by unknown means. Its design is consistent with the Caldari Rokh class battleship however there are some extensive hull modifications. There are several large wrecks in vicinity of the Rokh." The operator concluded, his voice betraying the awe he felt at discovering such a trove.

"Helm, take us to her." The captain said quietly. The helm controls bleeped as they were manipulated and the Little Fish jumped into warp again. She emerged from the tunnel to a horrific scene. The hulk of the Rokh dominated the view. Her hull integrity was intact, however there several deep battle scars, a turret was shot from its mount and a long yet superficial gash ran along the starboard engine faring. There was an internal plasma leak filling the engineering and some living sections with lethal radiation. This ship had taken one hell of a beating. Around the Rokh were the hulks of several Raven class battleships, three Drake class battlecruisers and the gutted wreck of an Archangel Machariel battleship. One of the Ravens had been holed through with a round of a calibre of at least 850 millimetres.

"Life signs?" Tserrahan asked hoarsely, dumbstruck at the scale of destruction.

"None detected," Came the mute reply from the sensor station.

"Something is very wrong here..." Marrke muttered.

"Let's go to work." The captain clapped his hands. "Dock the Fish on the superstructure just aft of the fire-control tower."  
...


	2. Chapter 2

**Continues where Chapter 1 left off.  
CCP owns EVE Online, I own my Original Characters**

The Little Fish was an engineer's dream. Rapidly approaching its 90th year of operation, the Little Fish was in constant need of loving care and attention to keep her in one piece. Daltfur was just finishing his recalibration of the engine plasma flow sensors when Rayna bounced up next to him.

"How's your head?" She asked, leaning toward him. The roar of the reactor and main engine manifold from behind the main engineering bulkhead was still loud enough to necessitate shouting or being really close. On a ship with a crew of just 20 personnel the closeness factor wasn't an issue as everyone knew everyone; there was no room for awkward or dislike.  
Daltfur took her hand and led her to a tiny observation room just outside engineering. He helped her down the ladder and they sat in the quiet, dust clouds nebulously tumbled outside the view port.

"My head's just fine, thanks." Daltfur said quietly. Rayna smiled, gripping his hand. Glancing into her deep brown eyes he recalled how he met her and ended up on the crew.

Just over a year ago, Daltfur was working as a starship engineer for a hauling corporation in low-sec space, servicing the corporation's industrials as they passed through the system. The station to which he was assigned was assaulted by an Archangel task force while the Little Fish was docked. Rayna was sprinting back to the Thrasher when a round from an orbiting Machariel punched through into the hanger. The deck collapsed through 3 stories of retail outlets beneath the main hangar killing nearly five thousand innocent civilians. Daltfur had seen Rayna running through the crowded thoroughfare, her dark chestnut hair flying out behind her, but away from the escape craft. He started to follow her, thinking she might need help, when the deck collapsed. He blacked out after hitting the foot of a fallen Mechanised Exoskeleton when the deck stopped falling. He woke to the sound of a woman breathing heavily in pain nearby. He sat up quickly causing her to scream in panic. She settled fast, shooting him a plaintive yet accusatory look.

"I thought you were dead." She said over the din of warning announcements and shield impacts. She was beautiful; her rounded face held her soft features perfectly, her rouged lips tight as she held in the pain, her gently arched eyebrows bunched in a frown. Daltfur looked down and saw her ankle was broken, her small foot twisted at an odd angle.

"Nah," He shouted back, "I don't die!" He chuckled to himself. The girls on the station were nothing compared to the beautiful yet injured woman he was now stuck with as the installation was slowly blasted to pieces by the marauding Archangels.

"I'm Daltfur Reglaasan." He introduced himself, reaching toward her face.  
"Rayna, Rayna Nurada" She replied as he gently pushed her hair out of her face. She didn't flinch.  
"I contacted my ship." She shouted, looking desperately around the hanger as the lights dimmed and flickered. Daltfur took her hand and she gripped his back tightly.  
"They should be..." The rest of her sentence was cut off as a Thrasher class destroyer flared, braking thrusters firing, and came to rest not ten meters away from them, roaring deafeningly. The hanger lighting ceased as the stations power plant was finally blown to pieces and pitch darkness fell for a few seconds before searchlights on the hull of the Thrasher lit up the immediate surroundings. A hatch on the command cupola opened and three armed men ran down the gantry and approached Rayna.

"Help me up!" She shouted to Daltfur. He complied, slowly helping her up onto her good foot and supporting her damaged one. Less than a minute and some fast talking later and they were aboard the ship. A bank of consoles ran the curved circumference of the semi-circular bridge, holo-monitors projected onto the panoramic bridge windows. The navigator and helmsman were positioned front and centre with the captain's wraparound style command interface console and the first officer's console in the middle of the room. There wasn't much room left when the bridge was fully staffed. An old Caldari doctor entered from the elevator from the rear of the bridge and beckoned to the group of armed men holding them. Three minutes of slow progress through the cramped corridors later they eventually reached the sickbay. Rayna limped to a bed and lay on it, instantly losing consciousness. Daltfur was ordered to a bed on the opposite end of the sickbay and as soon as his head hit the biocusion his vision blacked out.

A day later he was escorted to the ready room to speak with the captain.

Captain Berhuvian stared at him intently.  
"Our chief engineer will be fine," he started, "however my ship now has a stranger aboard and this causes all kinds of potential security risks." He sighed, clasping his hands on the desk.  
Daltfur gulped.  
"I'm an engineer," he said quickly, "not much experience working with combat vessels."  
"What do you have experience in?" The captain asked, eyes narrowing.  
"Industrials and freighters." He replied, looking away from the Minmatar captain.  
"Big ships." Berhuvian stated, warming to the boy's honesty.  
"I'm assigning you to Rayna's engineering detail, report to her at oh-nine hundred tomorrow." Berhuvian stood to shake hands with Daltfur. They shook firmly.  
"This is your chance to thank us for pulling you out of the fire, don't let me down."  
"You won't be disappointed sir!" Daltfur saluted.  
"Oh one last thing, don't call me sir and don't salute me for the love of all things holy."  
Daltfur had left quickly.

He shook his head, dislodging the memory. Rayna was gazing out of the viewport at the massive warship they were approaching.

"That is one mother-humping piece of kit." She whispered in awe.

"Yeah," Daltfur agreed, mesmerised by the rows of navigation lights blinking forlornly along the kilometre long vessel, "Scuttlebutt says we get to work on her too."

"I can't wait!" She exclaimed, grabbing Daltfur in an embrace. "Canteen?" She suggested after releasing him. He nodded and they clambered up the ladder.

"This isn't possible!" Marrke stated flatly as the holo-cutaway scan slowly rotated in the centre of the ready room behind the bridge. The Little Fish was resting on the hull of the Rokh, powered down as much as possible and projecting a sensor dampener over the complex to reduce chances of detection from other prospecting ships.

"Clearly it is," the captain replied. The extent of the modifications had not been as obvious from the outside but the penetrating scans had revealed that all was not as it seemed.  
The ship they were resting on looked like a Rokh but inside she was a completely revolutionary vessel. Inside her was a modified pair of spinal mounted 1000 millimetre rail-guns for use on capital ships, one on top of the other. Along with the standard eight 425 millimetre rail-gun mounts there were eight more 350 millimetre guns in recessed and concealed mounts along the flanks. Her auxiliary power core was in the superstructure they were docked on which provided direct injection power for the shields. Theoretically her shielding power exceeded even that of a carrier in triage mode and the theoretical recharge rate was so fast that it could overtake any shield boosting module yet invented. There was a second, larger generator that sat in the forward ventral hull section under the guns to power them and the smaller guns. There was a Titan class sensor array at the extreme forward of the upper hull section, its lights blinking and sensor dishes spinning. The plasma leak was from a fractured engine reactor fuel line and that was first on the repair list.

"How does this exist?" Marrke asked in shocked awe. Captain Tserrahan was equally dumbfounded

"What is it doing here?" He asked.

"Whose is it?" was the proverbial bucket-of-cold-water from Rayna. She was just as amazed at the level of engineering required to fit that much firepower into the ship but as a woman, she tended not to swoon at the sight of massive guns.

"Obviously it is a Caldari war machine..." Marrke began before he was cut off by the captain.

"Not so obvious, Marrke." He stated "Find one Caldari State insignia on the ship."  
Marrke looked around the holo frantically.

"There aren't any." Rayna surmised, the captain tricked Marrke like that all the time. Tserrahan snorted with suppressed mirth.

"Nope, not a single one." He pressed a button and the internal components lined up next to each other. "The Archangel wreck rules them out, and if you noticed, the Ravens and Drakes out there are Caldari Navy warships." The captain looked at his first officer and chief engineer and could see the trepidation in their eyes as they contemplated the last possibility.

_Capsuleers_


End file.
